North Beach Music Festival 2023: Snapshots & Storylines [Photo/Video]

North Beach Music Festival returned to Miami Beach, FL over the weekend for its third year at the scenic Miami Beach Bandshell.

The three-day event has always aimed to bring the best of the national jam band circuit—and the many stylistic approaches that fall under that umbrella—to Miami for a bit of Florida sunshine and communal creativity as the weather gets cold further north. The 2023 edition of the festival continued to explore the nuances inherent in the scene with what largely amounted to two distinct “jam” dialects: two days of dance- and electronic-focused music (led by the likes of The Disco Biscuits, SunSquabi, and Mark Farina) followed by a Sunday bill featuring improv-oriented acts rooted in more organic sounds like funk, rock, jazz, and country (including Cory Wong, Eggy, Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country, and more).

The 2023 edition of North Beach Music Festival got started on Friday evening with a half-day of programming contained to the main Bandshell stage. Up first was versatile St. Petersburg, FL quintet Ajeva, whose hourlong set ran the gamut of sonic influences from spacey ambiance to arena rock solos to metal-tinged prog. Up next was Mark Farina, the acclaimed DJ, producer, and longtime purveyor of “Mushroom Jazz.” Farina’s imaginative downtempo style was a perfect fit for opening hours of the beachside festival, pulling together samples ranging from jazz scatting to Jamiroquai, bebop trumpet solos to Parliament to strike a smooth, sultry tone for the evening’s dance party.

The first-ever two-set headlining show by The Disco Biscuits on Miami Beach served as Friday’s centerpiece. Following a first set highlighted by an opening “Munchkin Invasion” > “Falling” > “Orch Theme” > “Munchkin Invasion” passage, set two put dancing—and local Miami culture—at the forefront with a Latin-tinged “Little Shimmy In A Conga Line” opening segment, a “techno” version of “Aceetobee”, and a closing “I-Man” featuring prominent teases and samples of an iconic local music export, Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine‘s mid-’80s smash “Conga”. Later in the night, the Biscuits’ Marc Brownstein kept fans dancing with a well-honed late-night DJ set at Miami’s Zey Zey.

On Saturday, the North Beach Music Festival 2023 dance party started in the early afternoon sun and heat with a main stage set by Florida jam favorites The Heavy Pets, who showed off a mix of their own originals alongside covers by Jimi Hendrix (“Castles Made of Sand”) and Phish (“Chalk Dust Torture”).

The Heavy Pets – Full Set – 12/2/23

[Video: CheeseheadProductions]

Bassist Brad Miller and his talented jazz-funk ensemble featuring guitarist Oz Noy, drummer Thomas Pridgen, and organist Nick Hetko officially opened the festival’s second stage next, coaxing attendees to the opposite side of the bandshell space to keep the music moving seamlessly. The thundering collective of monster jazz players flexed their world-class chops as they worked through everything from a reimagined Fleetwood Mac “Dreams” cover to a track recorded in nature in Costa Rica alongside Jonathan Mones (Ghost-Note) and BIGYUKI.

While many in the crowd were unfamiliar with Say She She prior to the show, just as many are sure to be telling their friends about the fast-rising act following Saturday’s Bandshell Stage performance. The group, led by vocalists Piya Malik, Sabrina Mileo Cunningham, and Nya Gazelle Brown and backed by four members of shapeshifting L.A. ensemble ORGŌNE, wove seemingly disparate vocal styles into something cohesive and fresh that still managed to harken back to the glory days of disco. Late in the show, following a group costume change to glistening, silver disco outfits—perhaps a nod to the group’s latest acclaimed album, Silver—the ladies of Say She She invited the crowd to stop facing forward and face each other, instead: “Let’s make this like an old disco, bring a little New York to Miami Beach.” The plan worked, and the Bandshell exploded with the day’s biggest burst of crowd energy.

Miami mainstay Electric Kif has been a part of the North Beach Music Festival family from the event’s first year. The group’s 2023 performance, a sunset slot on the second stage, once again emerged as a high point of the weekend. Amid entrancing funk-rock grooves, the band welcomed up a pair of notable guests: Adam Deitch (who reprised a collaborative cover of Herbie Hancock‘s “Actual Proof” he recorded with Electric Kif after last year’s North Beach) and Cory Wong (who previously connected with members of Kif via their shared work with Nu Deco Ensemble and traded riffs with guitarist/birthday boy Eric Escanes late in the show).

Colorado-based electronic power trio SunSquabi picked up the dance-music baton once again for a hair-raising set of anthemic, synth-heavy jams before Adam Deitch took the stage across the bandshell for a rare “producer set.” If the ethos of the 2023 North Beach lineup was to showcase the many creative styles within the “jam” community, Adam Deitch was the embodiment of that multiplicity. Deitch may be best known as the drummer for acts like Lettuce and Break Science,  but rather than bringing either of his more well-known outfits to North Beach, Deitch offered up a pair of sets that showed off alternate sides of his broad creative vision. In addition to his producer set, which showcased his hip-hop/funk/soul beats alongside tasteful live percussion and a sit-in by trumpeter Ashlin Parker, Deitch returned to the festival on Sunday to lead a set by his jazz foursome, the Adam Deitch Quartet, featuring Parker, organist Wil Blades, and saxophonist Ryan Zoidis (Lettuce).

As if that wasn’t enough, Deitch jumped in with The Disco Biscuits during their single-set Saturday headlining performance to add some breakbeats to an inverted rendition of “Confrontation” before ceding the drum kit back to Allen Aucoin, who powered the band through a bust-out cover of LCD Soundsystem‘s “Tribulations” and a closing “Spacebirdmatingcall” that had been teased throughout the two nights.

The Disco Biscuits – Full Set – 12/2/23

[Video: CheeseheadProductions]

On Sunday, legendary The Meters bassist George Porter Jr. and his Runnin’ Pardners kicked off the afternoon with some soul-cleansing New Orleans funk (including Meters favorites “Just Kissed My Baby” and “It Ain’t No Use”) before throwing it over to the second stage for a pulsing performance by live electronic duo Twyn, comprised of keyboardist Jason Matthews (Electric Kif) and drummer Aaron Glueckauf (Lemon City Trio).

George Porter Jr. & Runnin’ Pardners – Set Preview [Pro-Shot] – 12/3/23

Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country and Eggy, currently in the midst of a co-headlining tour of the South, followed on the Bandshell stage with successive 90-minute sets. Much like the festival as a whole, these two acts showed off two unique approaches to improvisational music. Donato (guitar, vocals) and his outfit out of Nashville, TN explored the unknown by way of a country aesthetic, infusing purposeful jams with a grassroots twang and narrative purpose that owes as much to Jerry Garcia as it does to Merle Haggard.

Eggy, the quartet from New Haven, CT, approached its improv from a more rock-focused foundation but leaned on clever songwriting, harmonic connection, and go-to inspirations (i.e. a soaring cover of Little Feat‘s “All That You Dream”) to bend toward folk, indie, and funk sounds amid bouts of anthemic tension and release. The band left it all onstage during the festival’s penultimate performance: After one particularly bombastic expedition, Alex Bailey (drums, vocals) took a pause to show the crowd his bloodied hands. “That’s Alex Bailey on the blood,” keyboardist/vocalist Dani Battat quipped.

While the mutual sit-ins fans have seen during the ongoing Eggy/Cosmic Country tour were absent at North Beach Music Festival 2023, the camaraderie between the groups was more than apparent in Miami: If you happened to hit the beach outside the venue late Sunday night following the show, you might have run into members of both groups taking a 4:00 a.m. team dip in the ocean before heading out to Jacksonville for their next date.

Guitarist Cory Wong of Vulfpeck fame is known for his airtight funk grooves, rhythmic playing, and vastly talented backing band. All of those elements were present in abundance during his festival-closing set, but it was the moments of emotional nuance and subtlety within the high-speed funk—like Cory’s slow-burning, feel-first solo on one of his staple compositions, “Meditation”—that stole the show.

Here’s to another fantastic year at North Beach Music Festival! See you in 2024. Below, check out a selection of photos from the 2023 edition of North Beach Music Festival via DubEra.